Free tools · Helper
Alt text decision helper
“What do I write for this image?” has a different answer for a decorative flourish, an icon button, a banner, and a chart. Answer up to four questions and get the right approach, with the code and the guide to go deeper.
Question 1 of up to 4
Is the image purely decorative, so the page would lose nothing if it vanished?
What it checks
Whether the image carries meaning
The only question that matters, and the one most alt text is written without asking.
Whether the meaning is already in the text
An image beside a caption saying the same thing should usually be decorative, or the reader hears it twice.
Whether it is a link or a control
An image inside a link has to name the destination, not describe the picture.
Whether it holds data
Charts and infographics need the data somewhere, not a description of what a chart looks like.
What it cannot tell you
- It cannot write the alt text for you. It tells you which of the four cases you are in, and the sentence is still yours.
- It cannot see your page. Whether the surrounding text already carries the meaning is something only you can check.
- It hands you all four answers on the images-of-text branch rather than asking which one you are in, because picking between them means looking at the page around the image. Where those same words already sit nearby as real text, or where the text is there purely for visual effect, the answer is an empty alt.
- It does not cover CAPTCHA or test images. 1.1.1 names six situations, and both of those need a text alternative describing the purpose rather than the content, because describing the content would defeat the thing.
Where to go next
Already have a draft? Run it through the alt text checker, and the full picture lives in 1.1.1 Non-text Content.